Stephan Oppenhagen Executive Chef

To be fair, there are not many star Chefs from Denmark, not as yet. That makes Stephan Oppenhagen fairly remarkable. On 20th February 1972 a new culinary talent was born in Copenhagen/Denmark. The Dane definitely had the gift from an early stage. At the age of 4 he was already interested in food. From then on his future was cast in stone.

Stephan's professional career began as an apprentice Chef at the age of 16 in the best Michelin* restaurant in Copenhagen. During this time, he attended the International Hotel & Restaurant School in Copenhagen (culinary & management).

Each year during the 4 years of his apprenticeship he passed his exams with maximum scores in all subjects and even managed to break the old record for highest score overall during his 4 years.

Stephan was rewarded with a Bronze medal on completing his course at the school.

Although Stephan was busy working at the Michelin* restaurant, whenever he had any time off he would knock on the door of other Michelin * restaurants and 5* international Hotels and offer to help them and their Chefs for free. He was more than happy just to learn and gain additional knowledge and skills, he never asked for any payment, he said, what he could learn from another top Chef was already enough for him.

During this time he also studied in France, Belgium, UK and the US.

Whilst continuing his education he received a diploma from the Nordic gastronomic academy (Scandinavian gastronomic Academy) for best exam that year, a special award for contribution, and an additional diploma from the Danish Gastronomic academy with scholarship and with the view to further his career in France with some of the best master Chefs in the world.

In 1990 and 1991, two years in a row, he won the gold medal at the Danish championship for apprentice chefs.

In 1991 in Lyon/France he was awarded the Bronze medal in the Bocuse D'or competition for apprentice's chefs and first prize for best fish dish. He appeared in many newspapers and magazines after that day and he was only 18 years old.

1992 he won the gold medal in the Danish championship for chefs, this time not for apprentice chefs but for educated chefs. Stephan started to receive many awards including Denmark's Chef of the year in 1994. In the same year he also won a Gold medal at the World Championship for chefs, just to mention a few of his many awards achieved over the years